Golf bag stands have been in existence for many years. However, no one stand mechanism has yet been designed to overcome the many limitations seen in the prior art. Many of the stands used in the past employ heavy weight mechanisms. Carrying heavy equipment, fatigues the golfer during play and tends to reduce the overall enjoyment of the golfing experience. The bulky stand hardware of other mechanisms poke the golfer or caddy while the bag is being carried. Other less bulky, prior art stand mechanisms while eliminating the poking and prodding during carrying of the bag are fragile, thus making these stands vulnerable to damage when attached to the back of a golf cart or when stowed in the trunk of a car, for example. For mounting the movable parts of some prior mechanisms the body fabric of the golf bags have to be pierced to attach the legs. Still other stand mechanisms require manual activation to engage and/or disengage the legs of the stand. Another common problem with prior art stands is the feet and stand actuation mechanism tend to sink in soft soil or mud.
In light of the foregoing it is desirable to provide an improved, automatic, light weight, spring action golf stand. Particularly, it is desirable that the stand mechanism have a compact design that keeps the stand integrated with the golf bag body and out of the way while the mechanism is retracted. Further, it is advantageous to provide a narrow profile width so the legs and other stand hardware do not hit the golfer or caddy while the bag is being carried. These and other advantages and features are provided by the improved stand system described herein.